A systematic review of the impact of media reports of severe mental illness on stigma and discrimination, and interventions that aim to mitigate any adverse impact

Abstract

Purpose

This review aims to summarise the evidence on the impact of news media and social media reports of severe mental illness (SMI) on stigma, and interventions that aim to mitigate any adverse impact.

Methods

A systematic search of electronic databases was conducted in December 2017 to identify studies that report on the impact of media coverage or media interventions on stigma related to schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, or mental illness in general. Data were synthesised narratively.

Results

12 studies met inclusion criteria; seven explored the impact of news media on stigma towards SMI or general mental illness, two explored the impact of social media, while three evaluated interventions that aimed to mitigate this impact. These studies showed that positive news reports and social media posts are likely to lead to reductions in stigmatizing attitudes and negative reports and social media posts are likely to increase stigmatizing attitudes. There were a limited number of interventions aiming to mitigate the negative impact of news reports of mental illness on stigma; however, these were ineffective. Interventions with media professionals appear to be successful at reducing their stigmatizing attitudes, but can also act to increase both positive and negative reports in the media.

Conclusions

Given the limited research evidence on the impact of news and social media on stigma towards SMI, and on the effectiveness of interventions aiming to mitigate this impact, further studies of higher quality are needed in this area. Due to mixed findings, interventions with media professionals are also an area of research priority.

Appendix A: Systematic search strategy

	PubMed	PsycINFO
1	stigma[TIAB] OR stigmatization[TIAB] OR stigmatization[TIAB] OR anti-stigma[TIAB] OR “Social Stigma“[Mesh] OR “Social Discrimination“[Mesh] OR “Attitude“[Mesh] OR “Attitude of Health Personnel“[Mesh] OR “Prejudice“[Mesh] OR “Social Distance“[Mesh] OR Stereotyping[Mesh] OR Social Perception[Mesh] OR “Rejection (Psychology)“[Mesh] OR Shame[Mesh]	(discrimination or stigma$ or “social distance”).mp. or stigma/ or “Attitude Change”/ or Prejudice/ or “Social Discrimination”/ or “Social Approval”/ or “Social Acceptance”/ or Labeling/ or exp “Social Perception”/ or Attitudes/ or “Adolescent Attitudes”/ or “Adult Attitudes”/ or “Child Attitudes”/ or “Counselor Attitudes”/ or “Employee Attitudes”/ or “Employer Attitudes”/ or “Explicit Attitudes”/ or “Female Attitudes”/ or “Health Attitudes”/ or exp “Health Personnel Attitudes”/ or “Implicit Attitudes”/ or “Male Attitudes”/ or “Parental Attitudes”/ or “Psychological Attitudes”/ or “Public Opinion”/ or “Stereotyped Attitudes”/ or “Student Attitudes”/ or “Teacher Attitudes”/
2	Mental Disorders[Mesh:NoExp] OR “Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders“[Mesh] OR “Bipolar and Related Disorders“[Mesh] OR “Mentally Ill Persons“[Mesh] OR schizophrenia[TIAB] OR psychosis[TIAB] OR psychotic[TIAB] OR bipolar[TIAB]	Mental Disorders/ OR exp “Chronic Mental Illness”/ OR exp “Bipolar Disorder”/ OR exp Mania/ OR exp Psychosis/ OR “Schizoaffective Disorder”/ OR “Psychiatric Patients”/ OR “Mental illness (Attitudes Toward)”/ OR “mental illness”.mp
3	“Communications Media“[Mesh] OR “Journalism“[Mesh] OR journalism[TIAB] OR journalist[TIAB] OR media[TIAB] OR news[TIAB] OR newspaper[TIAB] OR television[TIAB] OR radio[TIAB]	exp Communications Media/ OR exp Journalists/ OR journalis$.mp OR media.mp OR news$.mp OR television.mp OR radio.mp
4	“Social Media”[Mesh] OR “Social media” [TIAB] OR facebook[TIAB] OR twitter[TIAB]	exp Social Media/ OR (“Social media” OR facebook OR twitter
5	(1 AND 2) AND (3 OR 4)	(1 AND 2) AND (3 OR 4)
6	Limit to Publications > = 2000 and Language = English	Limit to Publications > = 2000 and Language = English